We had a well deserved (I think) lie in, and then tried to sort out what we were actually going to do in the Sydney over the next week. Today we figured we'd just walk around and get our bearings- it wasnt very sunny, so we thought we'd wait for the sun to come out before we took all our pictures. We had a crepe/yoghurt by the harbour for breakfast, before walking to Circular Quay. Mum wanted to have a look inside the Queen Victoria shops- a big shopping arcade that looks a bit like harrods from the outside- and we walked straight past it! Its not the kind of thing you miss easily, but we found it in the end, and had a quick window shop. We made reservations at the Sydney tower, a really tall tower a bit like the Stratosphere tower in Las Vegas, for Thursday night- they have a revolving restaurant to you see the entire skyline.

We walked up through the shops to Circular Quay and went into the museum of Contemporary art

. I really liked some of the art there- there were 3 exhibitions. One guy made a fat convertible- it was just really puffy. Nice car though. There was a floor full of cynical Americanism, which was a bit depressing but interesting and another with abstract art. Not sure it was mums cup of tea though, so she went off for a latte.

We went off in search of the tourist information and stumbled across a great art gallery- all photos of australia (plus some of England) and a couple of inspirational quotes thrown in here and there. This gallery was in 'the rocks'- a neighbourhood full of cafes and galleries down little paved streets and alleyways, where we spent the better part of an hour looking around, wishing we had enough money to buy all the nice art. It used to be the place were all the sailors would hang around and get drunk when their ships came into Syndey 100 years ago, but its gone a bit upmarket since then. We came out the other side near the Botanical gardens, and walked through a small part of it (they're massive) to get to the Museum of Australia. I went in there while mum went to the NSW art gallery- I wanted to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year photos that were on display, and mum preferred to see more art. The museum was good- a bit like the Natural History museum. I didnt really have enough time to see everything, but I saw all the photos in the exhibition (which were amazing).

I met up with mum and we walked back to the Imax theatre- they were showing the Polar Express in 3D. I'd never heard of a full length film being in 3D and hadnt seen it yet, so we figured we might as well go- and it was really good! A bit passe being about Christmas and all, but I really enjoyed it, and it was fun watching it in 3d. After we'd got changed in our hotel room, we decided to try and get to Circular Quay to watch the sun set over the harbour bridge- but couldnt find a water taxi anywhere. (Loads of people use them to get to the restaurants so they were a bit busy). We ended up just going to a Thai restaurant in Darling Harbour but it was really nice and I'm glad we went! We walked back to the hotel around the harbour, which is beautiful at night with all the bright lights reflecting in the water. Got lots of good pictures!